EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$50.3bn
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$50.3 billion (US$1.57 billion) of local shares after buying a net NT$5.01 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$1.29 trillion of local shares since the beginning of the year, it said. The top three shares bought by foreign investors last week were Innolux Corp (群創), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and AUO Corp (友達光電), while the top three shares sold by foreign investors were E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控). As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$16.13 trillion, or 39.41 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
EQUITIES
Exchange calls for buybacks
The Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday encouraged listed companies to implement stock buyback programs to enhance investor confidence. The exchange also called on executives and board directors to increase holdings of their company’s shares to bolster market confidence. It said that listed companies should consider their cash flow management to protect corporate credibility and shareholders’ interest in buyback programs. From Jan. 1 to Friday last week, listed companies executed 53 buyback programs, 46 of which were expired, completed or ceased to implement, it said. Listed firms are expected to pour in NT$1.52 billion to repurchase their shares through the remaining seven programs, it said.
LABOR
Furlough numbers increase
The number of the nation’s furloughed workers grew by 1,719 from the previous week to 15,050 last week, with most of them from small tourism agencies and the manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday. Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Deputy Director Wang Chin-jung (王金蓉) said the highest number of furloughed workers, 1,195, were from small travel agencies which have yet to benefit from the reopening of the border on Thursday. Of the 208 furloughed workers in the manufacturing sector, about 100 were from a machine tool maker due to a decline in orders, Wang said. Eighty-eight workers on unpaid leave were from retail and wholesale businesses, while 85 and 81 were from the transportation/logistics and hotel/restaurant industries respectively, she said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
ISTI posts record profit
Chip inspecting services provider Integrated Service Technology Inc (ISTI, 宜特科技) yesterday said it expects geopolitical tensions and reduced production from customers would not affect its business as it reported record-high pretax profit for the third quarter. It said that pretax profit grew 162 percent year-on-year to NT$167 million last quarter, the highest for the same period on record. That translated into pretax earnings per share of NT$2.28. Consolidate revenue totaled NT$975 million last quarter, also a record high, with gross margin reaching 31.1 percent. Strong demand for verification and analysis of automotive chips, advanced processes, advanced packaging and compound semiconductors last quarter, as well as contributions from subsidiaries and affiliates, contributed to revenue and pretax profit, it said. In the first three quarters, pretax profit totaled NT$371 million, up 126 percent year-on-year, with pretax earnings per share of NT$5, it said.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
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